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ASSIGNMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n Imagine this.\u00a0 You\u2019re sitting in your dorm room, listening to the newly released Kendrick Lamar album and talking to your roommate about how much you don\u2019t want to do your latest english assignment.\u00a0 You\u2019re supposed to analyze the rhetoric<\/i> and rhetorical styles <\/i>that authors use to make their essays good.\u00a0 It\u2019s a typical english class essay: everyone ends up researching an old, famous, white author and writes essentially the same 5 page analysis as everyone else.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t there anything else people can write about?<\/p>\n Suddenly, your roommate has a brilliant idea, what if instead of choosing an author, you choose a poet, or even a rapper?!<\/p>\n SPOKEN WORD<\/strong><\/p>\n This is what happened to my friend Alex in his english class in his first quarter of college.\u00a0 The class was told to write a biography of a Californian author who they thought the class should study next quarter.\u00a0 While the rest of the class chose writers of the past, Alex chose to write about Compton-born rapper,\u00a0Kendrick Lamar<\/a>.\u00a0 His argument<\/a> was pretty straightforward:<\/p>\n \u201cToo much of our curriculum is centered around literature written decades or centuries ago by white authors. Rather than learning about the recent history of California through authors of older generations, we should pick a modern, black poet like Kendrick. His music is a connection to the modern struggle of black Americans. Studying music allows you to still read the lyrics as well as experience the themes aurally.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It was a great choice.\u00a0 Not only do rappers use rhetoric in their songs, but because he\u2019s a current artist, the issues his music responds to are the same issues we are trying to solve in society.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what education is all about?\u00a0 Thinking outside of the box and bringing other cultures and thoughts together to reshape our opinions?\u00a0 However, in order to study a current author, technology is needed.\u00a0 In order to keep up with the issues that his music responds to, along with the music itself, those who study Kendrick rely on technology.<\/p>\n TECHNOLOGY SOLVES OUR PROBLEMS<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the ease in which technology made a boring assignment interesting and valuable, people still argue that technology is being overused in education.\u00a0 They argue it\u2019s making us dumber!\u00a0 In reality, it\u2019s just allowing us to use our brains for other things, like drawing connections between cultures.<\/p>\n My own view is that technological innovations are providing society with a method in which information is easily accessed and remembered, which allows education to be even more interesting and valuable. \u00a0 To be clear though, there are still good and bad uses of technology.\u00a0 <\/b>I concede that by making information easy to access, people have become lazy and are in a position where they can gather new information without really learning it.\u00a0 However, I still maintain that the benefits that technology provide outweigh the negatives.<\/p>\n THE WORLD IS FLAT<\/strong><\/p>\n For example, technology brings cultures together and allows people to study the cultural issues other people face.\u00a0 From other cities in the United States, (Kendrick\u2019s hometown of Compton) to cities all across the world, different cultures and societies offer unique perspectives to today\u2019s life.\u00a0 Thanks to technology, we are able to gather all these different perspectives and become fully educated to the world around us. Some people may respond by arguing that technology will never be able to replace the methods in which people learned before technology was so easily accessible.\u00a0 I would reply by clarifying what I\u2019m saying; technology will never and should never totally replace prior methods of learning.\u00a0 Its best use is in conjunction with traditional learning methods such as going to the library.\u00a0 This ease of communication and shared knowledge can be extremely beneficial if it\u2019s used in the correct amount.<\/p>\n ANTICIPATION TO LEARN<\/strong><\/p>\n Technology allows people to find topics that they have never heard of before and easily become interested in learning more about them.\u00a0 In her article, \u201cI Had a Nice Time with You Tonight. On the App,\u201d Jenna Wortham, a writer for the New York Times, suggests that smartphone apps actually bring people closer saying,<\/p>\n \u201cIf anything the pervasiveness of technology in my life has heightened my desire for actual one on one meetings\u201d (396).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, it is understood that interaction through a phone screen will never produce the same results as seeing your significant other in person, and in no way will social media ever be able to replace that.\u00a0 However, it creates anticipation for the moment when that in-person meeting actually does happen.\u00a0 I think this is a perfect correlation to education.\u00a0 The online interactions serve as getting hooked by an new topic on the internet, but the real deal, where the real educating occurs, comes from the face-to-face discussions, which can be considered the hands on research that goes on at a library, in a classroom or through reading a book.<\/p>\n Similarly, had it not been for a multitude of different technological advances, Alex wouldn\u2019t have ever thought to write about Kendrick.\u00a0 It would\u2019ve been an extremely challenging assignment.\u00a0 From listening to his songs over and over and writing down the lyrics by hand, to then analyze them and then write a whole new paper.\u00a0 Instead, all he had to do was search for Kendrick\u2019s lyrics.\u00a0 Genius music<\/a> pops right up and he’s taken to a place where he can read and analyze the lyrics.\u00a0 Also, on the side of the page he\u2019s given someone else’s opinion\u00a0of what Kendrick\u2019s lyrics mean, yet another example of the shared knowledge that technology provides.<\/p>\n WHAT DOES IT MEAN?<\/strong><\/p>\n When interviewed for Rolling Stone Magazine<\/a>, Kendrick is vague about what the title of his third studio album, \u201cTo Pimp a Butterfly,” means.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will be taught in college courses someday\u2026. \u201cYou take a black kid out of Compton and put him in the limelight, and you find answers about yourself you never knew you were searching for.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kendrick’s dream of being studied in college courses is one that Alex shares. \u00a0They agree that by studying his music, new ways to look at society will develop. \u00a0However, in order for classes to study Kendrick, technology must be used in the classroom.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t be possible to study any artist\u2019s music without the aid of machines that give millions of people access to the same information.\u00a0 As long as technology is used we\u2019ll be able to do exactly what I feel education should be all about, learning from everyone\u2019s perspective in order to look at the many questions and challenges in society.<\/p>\n Here’s a link to an NPR youtube video<\/a> that encapsulates the idea of analyzing Kendrick’s music in a classroom environment.<\/p>\n Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n Wortham, Jenna. “I Had a Nice Time with You Tonight. On the App.” They Say I Say With Readings.<\/i> Ed. Gerald Graff. By Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015. N. pag. Print.<\/p>\n Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.avoiceformalestudents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/news\/the-trials-of-kendrick-lamar-inside-the-new-issue-20150311<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/gifrific.com\/ron-swanson-throws-out-computer\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/theodysseyonline.com\/unc\/college-life-michael-scott-gif-edition\/74750<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ASSIGNMENT Imagine this.\u00a0 You\u2019re sitting in your dorm room, listening to the newly released Kendrick Lamar album and talking to your roommate about how much you don\u2019t want to do your latest english assignment.\u00a0 You\u2019re supposed to analyze the rhetoric and rhetorical styles that authors use to make their essays good.\u00a0 It\u2019s a typical english … Continue reading ![\"720x405-R1231_FEA_Kendrick_Lamar_A\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/jkipper\/files\/2016\/03\/720x405-R1231_FEA_Kendrick_Lamar_A-300x169.jpg\")
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